Cellphones no longer wrong number at some SouthCoast schools

The current cellphone policy in the student handbook at Old Rochester Regional High School is "unrealistic," Principal Michael Devoll said.

ARIEL WITTENBERG

The current cellphone policy in the student handbook at Old Rochester Regional High School is "unrealistic," Principal Michael Devoll said.

Under that policy, students are required to have their cellphones turned off and put away all day long.

"Honestly, we were kidding ourselves," Devoll said. "If you walked down the hall, every kid was carrying a phone. You could spend the whole day trying to confiscate them. It was never-ending."

In January, ORR announced a pilot policy to change all that. Now, students are allowed to use their cellphones in the cafeteria and in class if individual teachers allow it.

"When I was in high school, there was a pay phone in the lunch room that we could use," Devoll said. "This is the 21st century version of that."

Devoll said he hopes the pilot program will be approved by the School Committee and become policy for next year. Doing so would put ORR in step with schools across the region that have begun to relax student cellphone policies.

In Dartmouth, students can also use their phones in the cafeteria or during class with their teacher's permission.

Dean of Students Michael Martin said the school does not have very good cellphone service, but students with smart phones use the school's Wi-Fi to gain access to the Internet.

The school changed its policy "a few years ago" because "we want to treat our students as young adults," Martin said.

"As administrators, we all have our iPads or iPhones out at meetings putting things in our calendar or looking up information," he said. "So we know that technology, especially these hand-held devices, is the future. We need to adapt to that."

He said cellphone use at school is helping students academically because they are now allowed to enter homework assignments into their electronic planners. Some students, he said, simply take photos of the white boards where teachers post assignments.

"We always have problems with kids forgetting their agenda books at home, or losing them," Martin said. "Losing your phone is much less common. If a student puts an assignment in their phone they are more likely to do it."

That said, the policy is not without its negatives.

In Dartmouth, Martin said there have been cases where students abuse the policy and use the technology to plan after-school fights.

The school has blocked social networking sites like Facebook from its Wi-Fi, and the student handbook clearly states that "use of social media and cellphones to carry out" bullying or harassment will be punished.

Overall, though, Martin said his greatest concern was that technology "is distracting in class," but, he said, "Some of that has to do with the age that they live in.

"They are just so used to checking Facebook every five seconds, its compulsive."

At New Bedford High School, Headmaster Andrew Kulak said cellphones must be "powered down and put away" during the day.

Though he doesn't anticipate changing that policy any time soon, Kulak said this year the penalty for breaking cellphone rules is much less steep. Last year, a student caught using a cellphone would get detention; this year, his or her phone is confiscated until the end of the day.

"I think this really puts a lot of ownership on the student," he said.

At ORR Thursday, senior Katelyn Cummings said she and her friends thought the pilot policy was "awesome" because "before we didn't really have any privileges or trust."

Her friend Chandra Perez-Gill said she has felt less tempted to use her phone during class because she knows she is allowed to text friends during lunchtime.

And how do parents feel?

It was the school's Parent Advisory Committee that suggested it, according to Principal Devoll.

"I can't tell you how many times I used to reprimand students for using their phones and it turned out they were texting their mom," he said.